Bitcoin is the currency of the Internet: a distributed, worldwide, decentralized digital money. Unlike traditional currencies such as dollars, bitcoins are issued and managed without any central authority whatsoever: there is no government, company, or bank in charge of Bitcoin. As such, it is more resistant to wild inflation and corrupt banks. With Bitcoin, you can be your own bank.

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ETF could be a solution of layer 2, in this sense it is not that bad. Say, Alice sells 1 ETF at 10 USD for buying coffee and Bob buys 1 ETF at 10 USD from revenue of selling coffee, and the ETF manager needs no rebalance its coin hedge position.

A common problem. But don't despair. If you put in the effort you can learn to use GPG. In the mean time, you can get some reassurance by downloading Bitcoin from both bitcoin.org and bitcoincore.org and use a file diffing tool to check that both are identical. You can also verify that the cryptographic hash matches matches the hashes found in the SHA256SUMS.asc files.

There is a whole host of security concerns you need to take seriously if you are going to be your own bank, and what level of care you need to take depends on how much value you are trying to secure with Bitcoin and what your personal risk profile is. Getting an authentic copy of Bitcoin is only the first of many things you need to take into consideration.

If a corporation with close ties to a government had the ability to dump millions of bitcoin on the open market, could they put a serious financial dent in the system? A corporation that perhaps manufactures mining equipment and runs "testing" phases for years on the latest models, before selling the inefficient old models to the public, for example.

What if these same people had the power to remove tether from all the major exchanges, what would the vacuum of tether do to the price of bitcoin?

I know everyone wants an ETF to happen because the hype will drive the price up. But if every bitcoin was worth 1 million dollars, multiplied by investment in other financial instruments such as an ETF, that is a DEFINITE investment (to an even greater magnitude) into something we think MIGHT be decentralized.

Unlike Gold, bitcoin is designed to go up in value. Its not apples to apples in terms of economic security; if we heavily invested into bitcoin it could disrupt our current society if an advisary controlled most of the bitcoin. How are bitcoins made? Where do they come from? Does anyone control most of the bitcoin hashrate? If they do, how much bitcoin do they have?

This is why the SEC has rejected the ETF so far to date. Not because they're jerks, or they're old antiquated men. Their concerns are real. Bitcoin doesnt need an ETF to go up in value. An ETF would just add fuel to the fire, a fire that could heat up marshmallows or catch fire to your home.

Parts of the SEC decision that matter most:
The investment objective of the Trust would be for the Shares to track the price of bitcoin on the Gemini Exchange, which is a digital-asset exchange owned and operated by the Gemini Trust Company. 29 The Net Asset Value (“NAV”) of the Trust would be calculated each business day, based on the clearing price of that day’s 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (“ET”) Gemini Exchange bitcoin auction, a two-sided auction open to all Gemini Exchange customers (“Gemini Auction”). 30 The Intraday Indicative Value (“IIV”) of the Trust would be calculated and disseminated by the Sponsor, every 15 seconds during BZX’s regular trading session, based on the most recent Gemini Auction price.

Additionally, given the current disparity between the Gemini Auction volume and the trading volume that would equal a creation unit—and the resulting likelihood that creation or redemption activity would substantially affect the Gemini Auction price—BZX has not shown that the ability of the Trust to use other criteria to value the Trust’s bitcoins in “extraordinary circumstances”166 adequately addresses the risk that creations and redemptions, or manipulative activity such as front running, may affect the Gemini Auction price on an ordinary day. In light of the risks that creation and redemption activity may substantially affect the Gemini Auction price—and that the use of other valuation criteria may fail to address the effects of creation and redemption activity or of manipulative activity—the Commission cannot conclude that the bitcoin pricing mechanism of the Trust is uniquely resistant to manipulation.